Harbour scene on the Neva with the ceremonial carriage of Tsar Alexander III on its way through Saint Petersburg

Description

Having crossed every border since the 1880s, Carl Wuttke can be considered one of the first world-travelling artists. Among the countries and regions he visited were Egypt, China, India, Greece, Japan, the Caucasus, Palestine, Turkey and Russia. One June day in 1889, he observed the Russian Tsar travelling through St Petersburg. Alexander III sits in a magnificent golden carriage pulled by a four-horse team of grey horses along the flag-decorated promenade along the banks of the Neva. Wuttke’s oil studies “(…) are characterised by luminous colouring, strong accents of colour, a sure feel for nuanced atmospheres of air and light as well as a spontaneous, pre-impressionist conception in impasto application of paint that avoids any academic smoothness.” (Lexikon der Düsseldorfer Malerschule 1819-1918, vol. 3, Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf im Ehrenhof and Galerie Paffrath, Düsseldorf (ed.), 1998, p. 452).